Every decision maker or employee involved with a company which has an IT element will likely have heard plenty about backing up data and files. It is something that is often discussed and continually recommended but surprisingly, is also commonly ignored or overlooked.
Many companies either entirely fail to implement backup solutions for their data and systems or routinely neglect the solutions they may have already introduced. This is understandable given the time and budgetary pressures which many smaller businesses are under, but is something which could cause huge problems down the line.
If your firm is amongst those who do overlook data backup, the following guide might just persuade you to refocus your attention. It is aimed to get you up to speed with everything you need to know about offsite computer backup and why your firm can’t afford to do without it.
Why is Data Backup Important?
Before we deal directly with offsite computer backup, it is worth taking a moment to dwell upon why general data backup is so important to any modern day company. In general terms, this can be best explained by detailing just what impact a data breach or loss can have upon a business.
According to a recent US based survey, 93% of all companies who lost crucial files and data for more than ten days were declared bankrupt within one year of the disaster. That may seem an extraordinary statistic but if you really drill down to what a major data loss can mean to a company, it makes perfect – if worrying – sense.
If a company loses all of its data, after all, that can include the personal data of its customers and other confidential and critical information. As well as the immediate impact this would have on their operation, therefore, it will also have a number of damaging knock on effects. Customers and clients may take legal action against the firm for the loss of their data, for instance, and the reputation of the business can also be irreparably damaged.
What’s more, there is hardly a week that goes by when another potential threat to a company’s data and files isn’t reported upon. As well as the dangers of human error and system failure, business’s data can today also be subjected to ransomware incursions, email phishing scams and other sophisticated cyber-attacks.
It should be abundantly apparent, then, why backing up data is indeed so crucial and offsite computer backup represents a smart choice for any business.
Choosing Offsite Computer Backup
The main and fundamental choice for any company looking to implement a new data recovery plan or to improve their current one, is whether to go for a physical onsite solution or an online offsite solution.
The physical alternative generally involves the company backing up the data from their server onto an external hard drive or other storage media. Offsite backup, on the other hand, utilises the cloud or offsite data centres to securely store backed up data away from a company’s own system.
That alternative is becoming increasingly more popular with firms of all shapes and sizes, thanks to the numerous advantages it offers over physical onsite solutions. Online backup solutions, to begin with, drastically reduce the infrastructure costs to a firm by removing the need for physical storage media.
What’s more, many of the best offsite solutions can also be automated so that data is backed up on a regular basis without the need for anyone at the company to physically initiate the process. This, therefore, can often make such solutions more time-efficient as well as more cost-efficient.
In terms of security and accessibility, too, online backup solutions have a number of notable advantages. The crucial data can be retrieved quickly and easily as long as an internet connection is available and while it is stored, it will typical benefit from sophisticated data encryption to keep it secure.
If our guide has opened your eyes to the importance of offsite computer backup, you can get in touch with one of EC-MSP’s friendly experts who will be able to help you find the very best solution to suit your company.
